Spits Game

Thursday, April 27, 2017

The 2017 NFL Draft is fast approaching and some teams are
working overtime while trying to find their franchise quarterback. The Dallas
Cowboys found
their key to the future in Dak Prescott with its fourth round draft pick in
2016. Prescott was highly rated as a
National Player of the Year Candidate heading into the 2015 season for
Mississippi State and finished the season as a finalist for a plethora of top
player awards; he also was named the 2016 Senior Bowl MVP. Leading up to the
draft, Prescott had a 2nd-round grade by most scouts but his draft stock slipped
when he arrested for DUI weeks before the draft. Due to the off field
infraction, many teams passed on him and he became a low-risk choice by the
Cowboys and the rest is history.

The NFL Combine showcases many of the top quarterbacks hoping
to be selected in the first
round or to have instant success like Prescott but one quarterback who
wasn't a participant was University of Mississippi's Chad Kelly, mainly because
the NFL decided to take a hard stance on players who have gotten into off field
trouble. He likely would have still missed showing off in front of scouts because
he tore his ACL in an early November game. Kelly was cleared by doctors and was
scheduled for abbreviated action during the Ole
Miss Pro Day, however, he aggravated a wrist injury and had to cut his
workout short. He'll get one more chance to show his abilities to scouts April
22, just five days before the start of the NFL draft.

Kelly, just like Prescott, has great mobility and had much
success during his one full season while playing for a school in Mississippi
and was on many preseason watch lists for awards but that's where the
comparisons should end. Prescott was perceived to be a risk because of
character issues but teams didn't due their due diligence and got it wrong.
Kelly, on the other hand, has a track record stemming from his high school days
to being dismissed from Clemson to getting into a skirmish during an Ole Miss
off week while watching his kid brother's high school football game, which was
probably the reason the league rescinded
its invitation. On the field, Prescott is known for making smart decisions
but has limitations when trying to throw downfield. Kelly has no such limitations;
he's actually known to have one of the better arms in this draft class.

Due to injury and character concerns, it's likely that Kelly
won't be drafted before the sixth round, if at all. But one team that should be
considering adding Kelly to the fold is the Kansas City Chiefs because head
coach Andy Reid has gotten all that he can out of Alex Smith aka check down
Charlie. Smith lacks the ability to push the ball down the field but he's
accurate enough to help Kansas City get to another 10-win season, but
certainly, they are looking to be more than also-rans. This is the perfect
situation for Kelly; he can learn under the quarterback gurus Reid and Brad
Childress and watch how Smith prepares. During practices, Reid will salivate at
the quarterback with the strongest arm he's had at his disposal since Donovan
McNab.

By most accounts, this upcoming draft doesn't have a signal
caller who's ready to lead an NFL team out the gate. Maybe because they haven't
seen what Kelly can do in a while and have forgotten about him. Don't be surprised
when Kelly jumps out on the scene and takes the league by storm in the near
future. You heard it here first.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Just two years ago, I spoke with an 18-year-old Thon Maker
for a feature story, as he was
prepping for the Ball Is Life High School All-American game. He was later voted
the MVP of that game, and lived up to the hype that preceded that day. Maker
was the 10th player selected in the 2016 NBA draft by the Milwaukee
Bucks.

I caught up with Maker to find out how his
rookie season was going for him. This discussion took place on March 15 in Los
Angeles, shortly after his Bucks defeated the Clippers 97-96. Maker got the
start in that game but only played seven minutes, however he did make a key
three pointer in the second half that swung momentum in his team’s favor.

On his NBA
experience:

Right now, I’m in the
flow because I’ve been playing a lot more, so it’s been good. I first started
out developing and seeing how everything was going and now I’m in the action.
So I just have to go out there and perform.

What he’s working on to
finish his season strong:

I need to continue
working on my body. I want to come back stronger for next season. There are a
lot of games being played right now, so that will have to wait. On the
defensive side of the floor, I need to work on being more vocal and finding
ways to help us win.

On what his life has
been like since joining the NBA compared to before:

It has been good…
very, very satisfying. I’ve worked really hard for it and I will continue to
work hard every single time. I feel like the results, so far, are where I
wanted them to be. To jump from where I was to get to the league, I did
whatever it took to get here and I’m going to do whatever it takes to stay
here. That is always my mentality.

Adjustments made to
his playing style:

Right now, I’m playing
more of the five so I’m dedicating time to my footwork, the quickness to fight
around other teams’ centers because they are much bigger, so for me that’s
important. I’ve been able to learn how to talk loud and talk more often than I
did.

Best experience of
this season:

I would honestly say
it’s the preparation for each game, each night… and just knowing that being in
the NBA, the preparation part is pretty big and working at it is very exciting.
We used to just watch the games back home but to, now, be a part of it and
experience it is a wonderful feeling.

NBA city with best
food:

We go to a lot of
restaurants. Hmm (ponders response). Who has good food? Can’t remember the name
of the restaurant but Detroit and New York. We go out as a team whenever we
travel for road games.

Expectations for rest
of season:

As a team, we want to
continue playing the way we are playing right now and I don’t expect nothing
less than this. So for us, we’re on a good pace for the playoffs and just have
to focus on one game at a time.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

LOS ANGELES — With home court advantage for the first round matchup
against the Utah Jazz in the NBA playoffs hanging in the balance, the Los
Angeles Clippers defeated the Sacramento Kings 115-95 in front of a raucous Staples
Center crowd in its final regular season game.

“I wanted to win the game,” said Doc Rivers. “I thought it
was good for our guys to win, but honestly home court is still more important
and we got that, so that’s nice to get for us.
That’s a bonus.”

DeAndre Jordan led the Clippers with 18 points, 17 rebounds,
and four blocked shots. Chris Paul
scored 17 points with nine assists. J.J. Redick contributed 18 points,
including three from downtown, breaking his own Clippers’ single season
three-point record with his 201st make from behind the arc this
season.

Chris Paul’s midrange jumper halfway through the first
period gave the Clippers a 17-15 lead, which they would never relinquish. Los
Angeles led Utah 30-23 after the first quarter.

“We played all of these games to get to this position,” said
Paul. “We had our ups and downs [this season], but all that’s over now, and it
all means nothing anymore.”

Most people would have expected the Clippers to pull away
from the Kings early in this game considering what was on the line but there
they were, only leading the Kings 41-39 with 5:58 remaining in the second
quarter. The lead grew to as large as 10
points after that but Sacramento kept fighting and only trailed by six with a
53-47 halftime score.

The Kings made the first basket of the third quarter, and it
appeared the Clippers wouldn’t be handed the fourth seed in the West. The game
was played within a six-point margin for the first portion of the third.
However, the fight turned into a sparring match for the Clippers, as the Kings
started to run out of gas, which was signified by Kings’ guard Ben McLemore
missing a breakaway dunk. The lead would be stretched to 14 by the end of the
third.

The Clippers finish
the season strong by winning their seventh consecutive game, which is the
longest active streak in the NBA.

The focus now turns to preparing for the playoff matchup
with Jazz, which begins Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at Staples Center.

“We have to clean up our mistakes,” said Griffin. “This is
what we played 82 games for.”

Friday, March 31, 2017

The Final Four will be played this weekend in Phoenix and
there are some interesting matchups that nobody thought we would be presented
with. We've come down to the Blue Blood versus the field, vying for the NCAA
Men's College Basketball Championship.

Raise your hand if you had the South Carolina Gamecocks
reaching the Final Four in your bracket. How about the Oregon Ducks? Maybe you
had the Gonzaga Bulldogs but they were the unlikeliest of the top seeds chosen
to reach this far. By far, the most popular of the national semifinal
participants are the North Carolina Tar Heels -- the only blue
blood college basketball program playing this weekend. To the common eye,
this is the Tar Heel invitational, but don't be surprised if these other teams make you put some respek
on their name by the time it's all over.

Another way to look
at field of teams is as a geographical battle because each matchup pits a
school from the Pacific Northwest against a school from the Carolinas. In the
first game, its Gonzaga versus South Carolina; there's good reason to cheer for
both of these teams. The second game features Oregon and North Carolina.

Gonzaga is a small school that plays in a small conference,
which they have dominated for the last quarter of a century. The Zags, as they're
commonly referred to by, have been to 20 straight NCAA tourneys and regularly
advance to the sweet 16 but that's about it. This season they were the last
remaining undefeated team and held down the number one spot in the polls for a
few weeks and are playing in the program's first-ever Final Four, so this might
finally be their
breakthrough.

This is also South Carolina's first trip to the Final Four.
Although they play in a power conference, they're not known for basketball but
maybe that will change since Frank Martin is the head coach. Martin is probably
the top feel good story of this thing. By now you've heard about Martin's
story, if not you best read up, then come back to this article. You see...
nobody really cares about this team except for alumni and people with close
ties to the players and staff but everybody wants to see a guy like Frank win.

Before making the Final Four, Oregon held the distinction as
the team that had gone the longest time between Final Four appearances -- 78
years. They're the team that most of the haters will be rooting for since there
are people who simply don't want the Tar Heels to prosper. As I just mentioned
how Martin is beloved, there are folks who are calling for Dana Altman's head
because of a scandal
from three years ago. That situation withstanding, the Ducks are on the
rise and they shouldn't be slept on.

North Carolina lost on a buzzer beater in last year's
National Championship game to Villanova. Most of this year's players were on
that roster and feel like they have some unfinished business -- they do. So as
just reaching this point is a major accomplishment for the other teams, not
cutting down the nets on Monday night will be a major disappointment for the
Tar Heels. Let's leave it at that.

If you just go by what most people expect then the two
number one seeds, Gonzaga and North Carolina, will play each other in the
championship game on Monday. However, South Carolina is peaking at the right
moment and these are the type of games where the Zags have faltered in past
years and if Oregon can knock off the number one overall seed in Kansas, they
can do the same to North Carolina, then we'll have a matchup versus the
perceived-scumbag coach versus the loveable one. I don't see that scenario
happening and, personally, want to see both west coast teams win because I've
covered their games in person this year and it will make most of the country
mad; CBS would have some poor ratings.

Gonzaga won't lose Saturday and North Carolina shouldn't
lose, although it is a very winnable game for Oregon. I hate calling matchups
before it's a certainty but will predict that Gonzaga will defeat North
Carolina on Monday night.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Clippers were gift-wrapped a 108-78 win over
the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night. Shortly before the start of the
game, the Cavaliers announced their star players would not be playing in this
game due to rest.

Blake Griffin led the way for the Clippers with a game-high
23 points and seven boards. DeAndre Jordan scored 13 points and grabbed 17
rebounds. J.J. Reddick chipped in 16 points.

“It’s a different game without Lebron, Kyrie, and Kevin
playing, obviously,” said Griffin. “We’re not going to pretend like it’s not.
But at the end of the day, you still have to go out and execute.”

It took the Clippers a quarter and a half to finally
separate themselves from the short-handed Cavaliers and ease the stress of the
home crowd. As they took control of the game by scoring 13 unanswered points,
Cav’s coach Tyronn Lue resorted to intentionally fouling Jordan for on
possession; Jordan split the pair of free throws and Lue didn’t go back to the
well. That was the turning point of the game, as Cleveland didn’t have enough
its arsenal to challenge the Clippers on the scoreboard.

“Guys started making shots,” said Chris Paul, who didn’t
make a field goal in the game for the seventh time in his career. “I still
didn’t, but I think our defense got a little better, we started getting out in
transition defense.”

Griffin put an exclamation on the Clippers’ second quarter
dominance with two seconds left in the first half when he caught the Cavs
sleeping and came unimpeded down the lane to rebound a DeAndre Jordan missed
free throw with an emphatic put-back dunk. The Clippers led 47-31 at the half
and never looked back.

“The ball just kind of took several bounces, a couple of
more bounces than any of us thought and I just happened to be there… I just got
lucky,” said Griffin. “Our trust was high tonight, that is what I like the
most.”

Even with Cleveland’s big three sitting out this game for
rest, the Clippers’ recent defensive woes surfaced when Iman Shumpert sank an
open 19-foot jumper then drove for an uncontested layup for the games first two
baskets.

However, the home team quickly got their affairs in order as
they forced and took advantage of seven empty possessions to go on a 12-0 run. The Cavs responded with a 14-2 run of their
own, holding the Clippers scoreless for the final 3:28 of the period, to lead
16-14 after the first quarter.

The Clippers entered the game as losers of three straight
and in sixth place in the Western Conference standings. Oklahoma City tied them
with the same record but was in fifth place due to a tiebreaker. It was a
much-needed win for Los Angeles, who play three beatable opponents in the
Knicks, Lakers, and the Mavericks next on the schedule before playing the
fourth-place Utah Jazz next Saturday, March 25.